homophobia – Observations and Misunderstandings

Today’s discovery revolves around the Coors family. For those unfamiliar with shit beer, they’re the ones who invented ‘Coors’ back in the nineteenth century and who still insist on pushing it on ignorant confused people who presumably don’t know any better. This is an episode of the podcast The Dollop, which I think I’ve mentioned before on here, but it’s premise is two comedians, one telling the history the other with no knowledge of the usually bizarre subject, making jokes and taking the piss. They’re quite long episodes which can put people off, this one is over one hundred minutes, but there’s worse you can and will do with your time.

There are a few companies I’ve boycotted over the years, from Nestle to Coco Cola to Amazon, and now after listening to this I can add Coors to the list. Thankfully I wouldn’t go near it as a drink anyway but now I have an ethical reason not to. The problem with that though is like any of these mega corporations they also own virtually everything else and while a lot of their range is equally mass produced crap there are a few beers I have enjoyed over the years such as Caffreys, Staropramen and Cobra, and when desperate Blue Moon – Coors own the Blue Moon Brewery itself. They also seem to own the old Mitchell and Butler brewery but I can’t find confirmation whether they also own the pub chain by the same name or whether they’re now two separate entities. Admittedly they’re not always great pubs but they can serve a purpose. Over the years my boycotts have never been one hundred percent successful but my beer purchasing habits will certainly now be affected.

What’s he talking about I hear you screaming. Yes this is such a long winded intro into the Coors family but I don’t really want to give too much away. Adolph Coors emigrated from what was Prussia to America and set up the Coors brewery in 1873. The family itself seemed to be loveless and hateful towards each other, and once his son Adolph II took charge he ruled the family through dictatorial fear. Some members of the family suffered from debilitating extreme right wingness, while others found God and became Christian extremists, or Evangelicals if you so desire. They lobby vehemently against women’s right, racial equality, LGTB rights, workers rights and so on. William Coors who ran the company in the latter part of the twentieth century once gave a speech to a room full of black businessmen on how the black mans brain was inferior and that they should be grateful their ancestors were brought across as slaves as it allowed them to become civilised. His brother Joseph was the right winger who he described as “being slightly to the right of Attila the Hun”, which coming from a racist is quite the statement. Joseph was also a special adviser to and part of Ronald Reagans ‘Kitchen Cabinet’. They were even involved with Oliver North and the Iran-Contra scandal. The family currently fund right wing think tanks and other organisations trying to challenge equality in all those forms mentioned. There is more but I both can’t remember everything and don’t want to give it all away. There were murders, suicides and such hatred that it does suggest there may be some truth in the idea that right wingers are just projecting their own self-loathing and anger onto the rest of us. The Coors Family are just vile, unfortunately very powerful, people. I’m amazed that I have never heard about them and all they get up to. Clearly it was a very informative podcast.

Most of the juicy stuff mention above comes towards the latter part of the podcast with earlier stuff just discussing the internal workings of the family itself. They seemed mainly to just do damage to each other and themselves until about the 1960s at which point all the above happened. Seriously, fuck them. The world doesn’t need people like that. They make the human race worse.

There is something that has always been incredibly frustrating about footballers and the footballing world. I can only talk of modern times and my first club football memory was in 1992 when I was watching the news of Manchester United winning the Premier League for the first time, and the league title for twenty-six years. I’ve been a fan since. Total glory hunting six year old. I grew up in an era in which football was gentrified and became squeaky clean. This is all I’ve known. I have no idea of what depths it was at in the 1980s beyond the stories both damning and glorifying in equal measures. Even in the Premier League era there have still been numerous incidents, mainly from fans but from players too, and there has seemingly been a desire to at least on the surface stamp it out. I must also acknowledge that were the desire to expose inaction over the last twenty-five years this would be an easy thing to do. It has not always been a smooth journey as there will always be people whose existence depends upon the status quo remaining in whatever shape put them there to start with. I have been rather ambiguous so far over incidents because while I am going to focus on racism, it is important not to ignore homophobic attacks, Islamophobic anti-semitic, anti-traveller etc.

What is really interesting now though is how much the footballers are getting involved. I’m not talking about them all taking the knee before the game because I doubt any player would jeopardise their entire career by refusing to take part. That doesn’t dismiss the important message it is making though. Individually footballers are really stepping up. While racism is amongst many things a political act, in the world of football, in which footballers can be fined tens of thousands of pounds for political actions, anti-racism doesn’t fall into that category. The anti-racism movement in football did not begin in the last few months but has been around for years. The organisation Show Racism The Red Card was established in 1996 and there will most certainly be organisations fighting long before that.

There have also been footballers making anti-racism statements in that time but it does feel like they’re really getting acceptance and coverage in a way that would have been impossible in the past. Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford seem to get a large amount of the coverage, which is inevitable given they are such massive stars, but there are others like Liverpool’s Rhian Brewster, who is in the photo at the top, and who is only twenty years old. I remember when he was seventeen after England had won the under-17 World Cup I think it was, discussing the racism he has experienced growing up and in the footballing world. This was a seventeen year old boy discussing a serious issue in a way full grown men cannot. This was an interview hailed by many but in my memory it was still challenged, even subtly, by elements of the press as to whether it was acceptable or not. It’s amazing how people can react when being put in their place by a seventeen year old. These are young men who have a platform stepping up and finally being accepted unconditionally by those who matter. What comes next is anyone’s guess but it does finally feel there have been some real seismic shifts.

For those who enjoy podcasts and / or Louis Theroux, this is a link to an interview he made with Watford striker Troy Deeney recently. I have spent time disliking Deeney in the past, this is mainly down to him seemingly constantly scoring winning goals against my team but if I have to lay it all out I suspect there was some lingering unconscious bias which nobody likes to acknowledge but was interesting to see exist. Ultimately he is a man who has had to fight his way through life, and has a story and ideas worth listening to, Theroux does a good job helping bring it and them out.

Tag: homophobia

The Coors Family

Footballers Stepping Up